Online gaming is a rapidly growing segment of the video games industry with the potential to be a killer Internet application. To address the needs of the gaming industry with IBM technology and services, IBM Research is developing new technologies to meet the exciting technical challenges faced by game players, publishers, and developers.

Online Game Genres

Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPGs or MMPs)

Large, persistent worlds partitioned across hosted game servers, each with hundreds or thousands of players. Game players pay a monthly subscription fee for 24/7 gaming with some games having more than 300K simultaneous players. Examples: Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, Lineage

First-person Shooter (FPS) or Server-based Games

Low-latency action games with little or no persistent state across games. Games run on a central server capable of hosting up to roughly 64 simultaneous players. Examples: Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, Quake: Arena

Peer-to-Peer Games

Most online console action games use rendevous servers (or player lobbies), and connect directly to other players. Traditional, Web-based games also fall in to this category. Examples: Madden 2004, SOCOM II, Chess, Backgammon

Mobile games

Games developed or adapted specifically for phones or other mobile devices. Players typically pay to download games and run locally. Examples: Tiger Woods Golf